Monday morning began with sunshine, rising temps and Monday Movers seated exercise group with Stacey and Noel! After a relaxing weekend, it felt wonderful to gather as a group to stretch out our muscles. We moved right into Karaoke Sing Along next and the singers belted out the tunes as Stacey and Noel took down the St. Patty’s Day decorations and brought out the Easter trimmings. After lunchtime, Barb Halling helped Noel deliver the mail and then Jeff Halverson assisted Noel in the dining room for our baking activity. This week the dynamic duo whipped up a couple peanut butter pies to be enjoyed later in the week! The afternoon activities culminated in a game of Tic Tac Toss, where Barb Halling came in fourth place, Milda Bautch, Herb Tschumperlin and Kevin Bauer all tied for third and Carol Campbell grabbed second place! Nancy Bishop surprised even herself when she nabbed the first place win this week! We ended the busy day with some supper and Monday night Bingo. Thank you to Kathy Luebker and Teresa Fedie for all their wonderful help with setting up, cleaning up and passing candy prizes, as well as helping residents play the game!

The pleasant weather continued Tuesday as folks gathered after breakfast for Mass with Father Jojo; the service brought warmth to our souls, just as the temperature outside brought warmth to our world. A special thank you to Julie Tschumperlin for doing the readings at Mass! Lunch followed and in no time at all Aaliyah wheeled out the popcorn machine to make a batch of fresh, yummy popcorn for our Popcorn Social! The delicious treat brought a smile to everyone’s face and was quickly gobbled up by residents. As we continued into the afternoon, Pastor Dave from Durand Methodist Church stopped by for church, with musical accompaniment provided by Stacey on the piano. We capped off the day with a little supper and then an evening of games with Aaliyah!

The sun was still shining brightly as we gathered Wednesday morning for our weekly bowling game! We always have such a great group of residents play the game and it is so sweet to hear them cheer each other on as the game progresses. This week we had Ave Maria students Ava and Declan here to help with pin setting and scorekeeping! We had plenty of time to play five rounds and at the end of the game Kevin Bauer came in fourth place, Alice Brantner was third and we had a three-way tie for second place: Milda Bautch, Mary Matzek and Zeona Bechel! Jeff Halverson took the first-place title this week! We worked up quite the appetite for lunch and once the meal was done and the dishes cleaned up, we assembled everyone in the dining room for an afternoon of Fruit Bingo. Thank you to Wanda Ebensperger and Catholic Financial Group members Monica and Mary for all their help with set up, clean up, passing prizes and assisting residents with playing the game! The winner of blackout this week was Barb Grewe! The afternoon rolled right along into our Mid-Week Social where we finally got to tuck into the peanut butter pie that was made on Monday. Yummy!

Thursday morning was set aside for the Local News and Coffee group and Noel read residents the paper. After lunch, Aaliyah offered manicures for the gals and we had a huge lineup of ladies waiting to get pampered all afternoon! There was an abundance of springtime colors adorning the ladies’ nails such as purple, pink and green. Painting all those nails took us to suppertime and then afterward it was an evening game of Pokeno with Aaliyah!

Winter returned and residents spent the snowy Friday morning playing Shuffleboard with Noel and Stacey! Mary Matzek placed fourth, Nancy Bishop was third place and Milda Bautch took second. There was a tie for first place this week between Kay George and Jeff Halverson! We enjoyed a bit of lunch and then Chef Jeff {Halverson} was in the dining room, helping Noel assemble ham and cheese roll ups at Snack Makers. They finished making the goodies just in time to serve for Happy Hour where we listened to the delightful tunes of the Earneys. Everyone was singing along to all the songs and Shirley Klinski had the spotlight briefly with her impromptu solo on “King of the Road!” The busy day ended with supper and then Movie Night, where we watched “Viva Las Vegas” starring Elvis, which drew a huge audience!